Its important to keep you shopping as its likely you'll be spending hour upon hour of your life whilst stuck in the terminal.

Privatising airports has brought none of the benefits of the private sector and exposed all of the negatives associated with the profit motive.

The present situation is intolerable.

Its about to get a lot worse.

The government recently unveiled plans to gather up to 53 pieces of information from each and every traveler BEFORE they travel.

For every journey, security officials will want credit card details, holiday contact numbers, travel plans, email addresses, car numbers and even any previous missed flights.All of this information will be held in a vast new database dubbed the "e-borders" system by the governmentCritics warned of mayhem at ports and airports when the system is introduced, beginning in earnest from mid-2009.By 2014 every one of the predicted 305million passenger journeys in and out of the UK will be logged, with details stored about the passenger on every trip.The scheme will apply to every way of leaving the country, whether by ferry, plane, or small aircraft. It would apply to a family having a day out in France by Eurotunnel, and even to a yachtsman leaving British waters during the day and returning to shore.The measure applies equally to UK residents going abroad and foreigners travelling here.The information will be stored for as long as the authorities believe it is useful, allowing them to build a complete picture of where a person has been over their lifetime, how they paid and the contact numbers of who they stayed with.Anybody about whom the authorities are dubious can be turned away when they arrive at the airport or station with their baggage.Those with outstanding court fines, such as a speeding penalty, could also be barred from leaving the country, even if they pose no security risk.(Daily Mail 20 Nov. 2007)You can bet your life there will be new charges to cover the costs of all this.Big brother and bureaucratic chaos will find a loving embrace at the UK's airports in the future.I can honestly say that I travel for a living.The vision of hell outlined above means, if I'm still in this game in 2009, I'll do something else.British Airports are already the worst in the western world.Now they're going to sink even lower.The emperor is not wearing a stitch of clothing.Hope this brightened your day!T

2 comments:

Anonymous
said...

I had heard about this new checking up on you idear, !! and thought of you and the amount of flying you do, what a nightmare !! hopefully frequent flyers like your self will get concessons :) or a quicker way of going through this big brother questionair :) penny xx

About Me

I spend the majority of my life on the road for my job and this little travelogue fulfils two purposes:
It lets me document the little vignettes which unroll all around you if you take the time to pay attention. It also lets me live under the illusion that my job doesn't dictate every aspect of my life.